Tommy Christopher's heart-attack question

10/15/13 2:51 PM EDT

Mediaite White House correspondent Tommy Christopher says he wanted to remind his colleagues about the stakes of the government shutdown when he asked his highly unusual question at Tuesday's White House press briefing.

At the briefing, Christopher told White House press secretary Jay Carney that he was uninsured when he had his heart attack three years go, then asked if the president would be willing to delay Obamacare if Republicans delayed "heart attacks."

"When I had a heart attack 3 years ago, I was uninsured, and haven’t been able to get insurance ever since then," Christopher said. "Listening to all the pressure on the president to negotiate, a lot of it from inside this room, made me think is the president willing to delay Obamacare for a year, if the Republicans were to agree to delay heart attacks for year."

Carney smiled before giving a pretty scripted response: "Tommy, you know the president's position is that we need to implement the Affordable Care Act and when it comes to the millions of Americans across the country who have had a very hard time getting access to affordable health insurance, we need to focus on those folks and continue the business of implementing the Affordable Care Act so on Jan. 1 those Americans should be able to purchase insurance, quality insurance." he said.

Reached via e-mail, Christopher told us he asked the question because of his frustration with other White House reporters' handling of the health care debate.

"I've been frustrated, for a long time, over the trivial way some of the White House reporters have handled this. The constant drumbeat for negotiations, the absurd questions about whether Jay Carney, who already has health insurance, will sign up for Obamacare," Christopher said. "I wanted to remind my colleagues that, for good or ill, the stakes here are serious. If the President is going to negotiate, this is what he is being asked to negotiate. I don't expect anyone to particularly care about my situation, but there are millions of Americans who are in the same boat, who don't deserve this."

Christopher noted after Carney's statement that he was able to enroll in an insurance exchange a week and a half ago.